have become much more alert to tax issues, and peopleseeking to bring their funds out of the reach of taxauthorities will find it increasingly difficult to open anaccount in Switzerland.’It may be too early to predict long-term conse-quences. ‘Swiss banks will no doubt in future be evenmore thorough and careful regarding the origin and theownership of funds entrusted to them,’ says Urs Feller.‘By international standards, Swiss rules regardingmoney laundering are considered as belonging to thestrictest regimes worldwide. Thus far, clients have notraised other concerns than before. Privacy and confi-dentiality remain cornerstones in a tax compliantworld.’

‘Swiss banks will no doubt in future be
even more thorough and careful
regarding the origin and the ownership
of funds entrusted to them.’

CREDIT SUISSE

So what of the news earlier this year that the US authorities had indicted former and current Credit Suisse
employees? ‘We expected proceedings against other
banks, not just UBS,’ says Adrian Dörig.

‘As far as we understand the US authorities, it seemsthat they do not have indications about any wrongdo-ing of Credit Suisse as a whole but rather of some par-ticular transgressions of specific employees of the bank,’comments Urs Feller. ‘The employees of the bank arenot directly regulated and supervised by the US author-ities. Therefore, it would be easier to prosecute the bankfor failures if such failures would have been detected.We assume the aim of the actions against Credit Suisseemployees is to demonstrate that there is no future forbank employees in setting up questionable schemes forthe benefit of tax offenders, regardless where they dotheir banking.’‘The newspaper reports about the arrests of CreditSuisse bankers were published in February of this year.And also in February the IRS announced its second vol-untary disclosure initiative to bring offshore money backinto the US tax system,’ adds Bernhard Lötscher. This, itwould seem, was no coincidence. ‘The nexus is in myopinion quite obvious: Again, the US authorities try tocreate an atmosphere encouraging tax payers to come

forward,’ continues Bernhard Lötscher. ‘The following
statement made by IRS Commissioner Douglas H.
Shulman on February 8, 2011 when officially announcing the new program illustrates this best: “We have
additional cases and banks under review. The situation
will just get worse in the months ahead for those hiding
assets and income offshore. The new disclosure initiative is the last, best chance for people to get back into
the system.” (IR-2011-14, February 8, 2011).’

INTERNATIONAL CRITICISM

Other jurisdictions have been quick to criticizeSwitzerland. ‘Banking secrecy, as it was known, hasgone forever and we are now in the intermediary phasewhere Switzerland (like other countries) is trying toadjust to the new world which is to come. In this newworld, we will be talking about discretion or privacy butprobably no more about banking secrecy,’ commentsEdmond Tavernier, a partner and business law specialistfrom Tavernier Tschanz. ‘In the new world of tomorrow,Switzerland will be well placed I believe to render thevery same services that it renders today, for reasonswhich have nothing to do with banking secrecy. It willrather be the old elements of stability and efficiency, thefact that it is a place where it is felt that things functionand are reliable and the like which will make the successof the banking industry tomorrow, not to mention theexpertise and competence to be found in Switzerland inthis area.’‘However, Switzerland is in competition with a num-ber of other places and countries for the very same serv-ices,’ continues Edmond Tavernier. ‘It is particularly trueof London, Luxembourg and the like and probably ofthe US as well. In that context, it is a brutal rapport deforces and Switzerland is constantly reminded that it isa tiny country and that it has a number of drawbacks(among which the fact that it has chosen not to be inte-grated in the European Community). It is thus easy forour competitors to single us out and to put pressure onour leaders and government, either directly or throughthe G20 or the GAFI or the like. The arguments used arevery often irritating to Swiss ears since they reveal aworld of double standards – a world in which the coun-tries that blame Switzerland for tax evasion or bankingsecrecy or for having too favorable a tax environmentfor companies are those very same countries where youfind that it is easy to open bank accounts without giv-ing the identity of the beneficial owner (as is the case inLondon through trusts and similar vehicles) or whereyou pay very low taxes or no taxes at all such as is the